Man sentenced for growing marijuana

A man from whom police seized 335 marijuana plants growing in his Canfield residence Jan. 6, 2012, has been sentenced by a federal judge to five months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and fined $1,000.

Charles B. Muth, 41, of Briarwood Court, will spend the first five months of his supervised release under home confinement.

Muth, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan.

In a separate case, Muth is scheduled to enter a plea in response to an ethnic- intimidation charge before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court at 9 a.m. today.

The ethnic intimidation charge stems from Muth’s allegedly calling a Boardman man, against whom he had a grudge, repeatedly about 3 a.m. Christmas Day 2011, threatening to kill the man’s family and using derogatory language.

Boardman police found the marijuana plants in plain view when they went to Muth’s 3,172-square-foot house, valued at $354,200, to investigate the December case, and they notified the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In a sentencing memorandum, Muth’s lawyer, Neal G. Atway, asked for leniency in sentencing, saying his client had no prior criminal record before these charges were filed and “agreed to allow marijuana to be grown in his home to help bail him out” of financial troubles he was suffering in a beer and wine carryout business he operated.

Muth, who previously had been a pediatric oncology nurse for eight years, also abused alcohol, and, as a result, made poor decisions, while faced with his financial problems, Atty. Atway wrote in the sentencing memorandum.